Thursday, June 26, 2014

Press Availability at NATO Headquarters

SECRETARY KERRY: Good afternoon,
everybody. Excuse me. As you know, this is the last foreign ministers
gathering before NATO’s next Heads of State Summit in September. Excuse
me, let me just get a little water here. (Laughter.) I’ve got the travel
whatever. So today, we had a chance to take stock of the strong
measures that have been taken in order to provide reassurance to our
eastern allies on the land, on sea, and air, and we’ve taken measures
that demonstrate that our Article 5 commitment is absolutely rock solid.
We also affirmed NATO’s open door policy as well as the vital
importance of having strong, capable partners.
Today we spent a significant amount of time in our discussions
focused on Ukraine and our allies’ sustained support for Ukraine’s
sovereignty and the right of its people to determine their own future.
The Ukrainian Government has recently taken a series of important steps
to forge a more inclusive society for all Ukrainians, no matter what
language they speak or what region the country they live in or what
their ethnic background may be. And after a free and fair election, the
Ukrainian people celebrated a peaceful transfer of power earlier this
month and are now implementing a ceasefire and a peace plan which offers
constitutional reform, broad decentralization of power, and local
autonomy to Ukraine’s regions and communities.
The United States commends the Ukrainian Government for reaching out
to separatists and to the Russian Government. And now we believe it is
critical for President Putin to prove by his actions, not just his
words, that he is indeed fully committed to peace. It is critical for
him to stop the flow of weapons and fighters across the border, to call
publicly for the separatists to lay down their arms, to pull Russian
forces and equipment back, and to help get OSCE hostages released.
Until Russia fully makes that kind of commitment to the peace process
and to the stability of Ukraine, the United States and Europe are
compelled to continue to prepare greater costs, including tough economic
sanctions, with the hopes that they will not have to be used. But that
is dependent on the choices that Russia and its president make in the
next days and weeks.
As Secretary General Rasmussen has said, Russia’s recent moves in
Ukraine served as a wakeup call. As our economies begin to grow again, a
strong NATO requires defense spending by all, and President Obama is
committed that the United States will do its part, and he has asked
Congress for an additional $1 billion for defense spending in Europe.
As we head to the Wales summit, every ally spending less than 2
percent of their GDP needs to dig deeper and make a concrete commitment
to do more. And all you have to do is look at a map in order to
understand why – Ukraine, Iraq, Syria – all threats to peace and to
security, and they surround the region.
On the minds of all of us today also is the situation in Iraq.
Earlier this week, I traveled to Baghdad and Erbil at the request of
President Obama, and while here I briefed my fellow foreign ministers on
the conversations that I had with Iraq leaders. Iraq is obviously
facing an extraordinary security challenge and a set of political
challenges and choices. The United States is also working to support
Iraq in its fight against ISIL. We need to remember that ISIL is a
terrorist army that threatens not only Iraq, but threatens every country
in the region which is opposed to it, and Europe and the United States.
Succeeding in this fight is going to require Iraqis to come together,
finally, in order to form an inclusive government. And in every meeting
with leaders of each of Iraq’s main communities, I stressed the
importance, the urgency of them coming together to do just that.
President Obama has also asked me to travel to Saudi Arabia on Friday
in order to meet with His Majesty King Abdullah and to discuss regional
issues, including the situation in Iraq and how we can counter the
shared threat that is posed by ISIL, as well to discuss our support for
the moderate opposition in Syria. None of us need to be reminded that a
faraway threat can have tragic consequences at home in the most
unexpected way at the most unexpected moment.
Just a few months ago right here in Brussels, a man who had recently
returned from fighting in Syria shot three people at a local museum.
NATO allies in the entire international community must remain focused on
combatting the growth of extremism. With the Wales summit in September,
our alliance has the chance to become far more adaptable in how we meet
emerging threats and far more capable in how we build the capacity of
our countries to be able to not only respond to them but, more
importantly, to preempt them.
One of the first tests of NATO’s ability to forge stronger, more
capable partners will be resolute support – NATO’s post-2014 train,
advise, and assist mission with the people of Afghanistan. And today we
discussed our coordinated efforts to wind down our combat presence in
Afghanistan while continuing our commitment to combatting terrorism and
preserving the gains made by the people of Afghanistan. NATO,
significantly, has succeeded as an alliance for more than six decades
now because it has always recognized that security threats of the future
will not always look like the security threats that you face today, and
certainly not like those of the past.
Remarkably, this gathering that is now discussing Afghanistan – 50
nations – has come together and stayed together for 12 years. At a time
when people doubt the ability of multilateral efforts to make a
difference, the meeting here today stands in stark testimony to the
contrary. It does make a difference. It has made a difference. And at
the Wales conference – summit, I am confident that NATO will demonstrate
strength at home in its unity and in meeting, in new ways, many of the
21st century challenges that we face today.
So I’d be happy to take some questions.

MS. PSAKI: The first question will be from Anne Gearan of The Washington Post.QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, you said a moment ago that Russian
President Putin will be judged by his actions, not his words, on
Ukraine. He did call this week for the rescinding of the invasion powers
for Ukraine, and that was acted on today. Is that enough, in your view,
to at least start the conversation about what the West might do in
response – specifically, not taking the sectoral sanctions step? Is
there anything really practical that you want to see Putin do in the
next couple of days before the EU meets on Friday to continue that
conversation? The things you outlined are much more long term. What do
you want to see him do in the next like 36 hours that would change that
conversation on Friday?SECRETARY KERRY: Well, first of all, we are not announcing a
new round of sanctions today, but we are going to continue to take steps
to prepare in the event that the circumstances on the ground warrant
those sanctions. And so we’re coordinating with our European partners in
order to prepare for that.
Now, we are delighted that President Putin put to the Duma the
retraction of that law which empowered Russia to take action in Ukraine.
That’s important. It’s a great step. But it could be reversed in 10
minutes, and everyone knows that. The greatest difference will be made
by the president publicly calling for the separatists to lay down their
arms, by President Putin engaging his diplomatic service actively in the
effort to help empty buildings, helping to get people to disarm,
helping to convene the meetings that need to take place in order to
negotiate and to move forward.
There are concrete actions – moving forces out, not allowing tanks
and rocket launchers to actually cross the border. There are many
concrete things that would make a difference, and we intend to work as
cooperatively as possible. These aren’t – what we’re trying to do is
make a set of concrete suggestions that really make the difference to
what is happening on the ground. Yesterday, a helicopter – a Ukrainian
helicopter was shot down and nine Ukrainian soldiers were killed. And it
was shot down with a Russian weapon, with a MANPAD RPG capacity that
took that helicopter out. And so it is – there are concrete steps, and
we are prepared to work very, very closely with Russia in an effort to
implement those steps.
And likewise, Ukraine also can take steps in a mutual way, and
they’re prepared to do that. President Poroshenko obviously has done so
by unilaterally putting in place a ceasefire and by taking great
political heat himself in doing so. Now’s the time for this moment to
really come together, and that is why the allies are talking about
preparing sanctions – not implementing them today, but preparing them in
the event that this effort were to fail.MS. PSAKI: The next question is from Erik Eenlo from Baltic News Service.QUESTION: Yes. This readiness action plan that NATO is
preparing – is that something that addresses the Russian arms buildup
and increasing number of military provocations in the Baltic Sea region?SECRETARY KERRY: Well, it certainly – that is part of it. But
it’s also much broader than that. It’s an effort to recognize that we’re
living in a different world. The type of threats that existed in the
past are not what played out in Crimea, where you had soldiers who were
hiding behind masks and without any identification on them, and a
massive public relations campaign simultaneously denying the reality of
what everybody was seeing on the ground; where you had this incredible
capacity for deception, for denial, which was both a surrogate effort of
a government and a linkage to activists, terrorists, and others.
That’s a new animal in a sense, and I think we’re seeing with ISIL
crossing from Syria and moving rapidly into Iraq a similar kind of
hybrid new form of effort, which is going to require people to think
through strategically intelligence gathering, preparations, response,
response times, nature of response. And that’s what the NATO alliance
has always done effectively, and that’s what the – a lot of today’s
discussion focused on, is how do you have not just permanent basing in
certain places, but permanent vigilance and permanent capacity to be
ahead of the curve. And that’s really the – that’s what readiness really
means, and that will be a lot of the focus of the Wales summit.MS. PSAKI: The final question is from James Rosen of Fox News.QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. Secretary. I wanted to ask about two
different facets of the Iraq crisis, if I may. First, I presume you saw
the comments that Prime Minister al-Maliki made in his weekly address,
in which he spoke of a “national salvation government,” quote unquote,
as a coup against constitutional processes in Iraq and one in which he
declared his refusal to participate. I wonder what you make of those
comments, whether you regard them as helpful or not to the task of
government formation in Iraq, and whether it is still the professed
position of the United States Government that the Obama Administration
is utterly disinterested in the question of whether al-Maliki stays or
goes.
And the second facet of the crisis I’d like to ask you about is this:
I wonder if the disclosure that Iran has been secretly flying drones
over Iraq – from an airfield in Baghdad, no less – and has been secretly
shipping literally tons of military equipment to the central government
in Baghdad serves effectively to complicate the United States’ own
evolving military operations and diplomatic mission in Iraq, and whether
in fact it represents a widening of the war there.SECRETARY KERRY: So let me take each question. With respect to
the prime minister’s remarks about a so-called salvation government,
that is not something that I discussed with him. That is not something
that was on the table in the context of our meetings while we were
there. In fact, there was no discussion that I had with any of the
leaders there regarding a so-called salvation government. And I’ve heard
reports about it, but I’m not sure exactly what it is that he rejected
or spoke to.
What I do know is that in the prime minister’s remarks today he did
follow through on the commitments that he made in our discussions. He
clearly committed to completing the electoral process, he committed to
meeting on the 1st of July and having the Council of Representatives
come together, and he committed to moving forward with the
constitutional processes of government formation. And that is precisely
what the United States was encouraging. He also called on all Iraqis to
put aside their differences to unite in their efforts against terrorism.
That is also what we had discussions about.
So what he said today with respect to the things we talked about was
entirely in line with the conversations that I had with him when I was
there. And the constitutional process that we’ve urged all Iraqis to
commit to at this time, we believe is critical to the ability to form a
government.
Now, Iraqis will decide that. And the United States is not
disinterested in what happens in a future leadership, but the United
States is not going to engage in the process of suggesting to Iraqis who
that ought to be. It’s up to Iraqis to make those decisions. And we
have stated clearly that we have an interest in a government that can
unite Iraqis that, like Grand Ayatollah Sistani said, will not repeat
the mistakes of the past and go backwards but can actually bring people
together. It’s up to Iraqis to decide who has the ability to do that and
who represents that future.
With respect to Iran and its intentions and role in Iraq, frankly,
you should best direct that question to Iran and to the Government of
Iraq. But from our point of view, we’ve made it clear to everyone in the
region that we don’t need anything to take place that might exacerbate
the sectarian divisions that are already at a heightened level of
tension. And so it’s very important that nothing take place that
contributes to the extremism or could act as a flash point with respect
to the sectarian divide. And --QUESTION: Has the war been widened?SECRETARY KERRY: Well, widened from what? Widened from five
minutes ago, an hour ago, yesterday? It’s been widened, obviously, in
the last days with the reports of IRGC personnel, of some people from
Iran being engaged in Iraq, with perhaps even some Syrian activities
therein. And that’s one of the reasons why government formation is so
urgent so that the leaders of Iraq can begin to make decisions necessary
to protect Iraq without outside forces moving to fill a vacuum.
And again, President Obama is very, very clear that our priority is
that government formation, and we’re going to take every step we can
over the next days. We had conversations about it here. There are people
here who will be encouraging that to take place. I know William Hague,
the foreign secretary of Great Britain, will be traveling there. He will
be having conversations. This is a multiple allied interest in having a
unity government that can move Iraq to the future and pull it back from
this precipice. And all of us remain hopeful that in the next days that
can happen.
Thank you all.

About Me

We do not open attachments. Stop e-mailing them. Threats and abusive e-mail are not covered by any privacy rule. This isn't to the reporters at a certain paper (keep 'em coming, they are funny). This is for the likes of failed comics who think they can threaten via e-mails and then whine, "E-mails are supposed to be private." E-mail threats will be turned over to the FBI and they will be noted here with the names and anything I feel like quoting.
This also applies to anyone writing to complain about a friend of mine. That's not why the public account exists.